TULSA – All five of Oral
Roberts' starters scored in double-digits and Jenny
Hardin scored her 1,000 career-point in an 81-71 victory over
the No. 1-seeded Oakland to advance to The Summit League title game
for the fourth time in six years.
Sophomore Janae
Voelker led ORU with 15 points (3-of-5 from three-point range)
and eight rebounds, while junior Rachel
Watman scored 15 and dished out three assists in the
quarterfinal win. Junior Mariana Camargo finished the day with 13
points, six assists and six steals and junior Demesha
Heard scored a career-high 10 points and was near her first
double-double of the season with nine boards.
Junior Jenny
Hardin scored point No. 1,000 with 3:07 left to go in the game,
becoming the 13th player in the ORU women's basketball
program to reach that feat. Hardin, who finished today's game with
13 points, is the eighth player to score 1,000 points in three
years.
Oakland's Jessica Pike surpassed
the 1,000-point mark for Golden Grizzlies, finishing the day with a
game-high 18 points. Pike was 1-for-7 shooting in the first half,
but came out hot in the second, nailing four three-pointers to hit
the 1,000-point mark. April Kidd was the only other Grizzly to
score in double-figures with 12 points, while grabbing eight
rebounds for OU.
The Grizzlies scored first,
but it didn't take long for Oral Roberts' to chime back. ORU
answered with a 10-3 run to take the 13-9 lead, while holding
Oakland's leading scorer, Pike, to 0-for-4 shooting in the first 10
minutes. With back-to-back trey's by Voelker, ORU extended its lead
to 26-13 with 9:33 left to play in the first.
Oakland finally broke the Golden
Eagles scoring streak with Jeltema and Kidd layups, while Pike
scored her first points of the game at the 3:17 mark with two
free-throws.
The Grizzlies finished the
first half on a 7-0 scoring run, capped by Pike's first basket of
the game, to send ORU to the locker room with the 10-point
advantage, 40-30.
OU climbed back to within
six in the early minutes of the second half, but similar to the
early stages of the first, the Golden Eagles fought right back to
score 10 to OU's three to regain their double-digit lead,
53-38.
The Grizzlies got within
eight twice in the final eight minutes of the second half, aided by
three-straight trey's by Pike. The Summit League all-conference
first teamer nailed her fourth three with 3:47 left to close the
gap to three points, but that was the closest Oakland was to ORU
the rest of the game.
Hardin's free-throw at the
3:07 mark gave the junior her 1,000-point and the six-point
advantage, which was enough to push ORU to the 71-61 win and its
fourth championship appearance in six years.
ORU will meet up with the
winner of the IUPUI/UMKC matchup in the championship game at 2 p.m.
Tuesday afternoon at the UMAC.
-ORU-
